about contending for the faith. We have covered already verse one all the way down to verse number seven. And so tonight we pick up in verse number eight, and Lord willing, we'll make it down to verse 16, but just a title for this evening, as we've already looked at contending for the faith, we want to look this evening at a heading entitled At Odds with the Gospel of Grace. At Odds with the Gospel of Grace. Now, just a quick review regarding what we've already covered. Back in verse number one through seven, we noted the army that Christ has established. And that army listed for us in verses one and down in verse number two Jude mentions that he's a bondservant. That word is slave, meaning that we have been purchased by our master. So we are blood bought, paid for in full. We have been purchased. The word of God says next in verse one, that we are the called. And I've shared with you how that word called is basically used simultaneously with the word elect. We are the called of God, the chosen of God, the elect of God. And then he says, be loved in God the Father. So not only are we purchased, not only are we called, but we are also loved. And then he says here, and kept for Jesus. So we're purchased, we're loved, we're called and we're kept. And in that army, those who are under that heading have been given by God through his son, the richest blessings. And those blessings are what is mentioned in verse two, mercy, peace, and love. And they are multiplied to you. And then we considered the enemy in verses three to four. We considered how their end was predicted, how they were ungodly, how they were deceitful, and how they were enemies of grace, and they denied the truth about Christ. Then we noted the assured victory in verses five to seven, how their end would come and the saints would be victorious. All that being explained by looking back at three illustrations that Jude used regarding Israel, the fallen angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah. And so now we pick up in verses 8 to 16. In verses eight to 16, we need to be reminded that now what Jude is going to do is reemphasize a lot of what Peter did in his second letter, 2 Peter chapter number two. In 2 Peter chapter two, there's a lot of parallels that are given to the writing of Jude. And you'll begin to see that. But I want to begin by just saying this, is repeating something unnecessary? Is repetition needless? The answer would be no, it's good. Even though we may hear from our children, I know that, you've told me a thousand times, it's okay. You need to hear it again, amen? And so Paul had written to the church at Philippi, And he said in chapter three, verse one, he said, I write the same things to you to me is not grievous. And for you, it's safe. So for us to look twice at the description of these false teachers, it's not a bad thing. It's really a good thing. And it's actually a safe thing. As parents would repeat warnings and repeat instructions for children, you and I need to hear things over and over as well. I've been told, and I don't know whether or not I can provide you an accurate resource to give you the footnote for it, but I've been told that we need to hear something about 20 times before we get it. And I've often toyed with the idea of preaching the same sermon 20 Sundays in a row, amen? I don't know how that would work. I figured by the second Sunday, I'd get an eyebrow too that would lift up. But anyway, we need to hear things a lot in order to get it. And so I wanna give us three headings this evening that help us break the following text. that we read down so we can have something to follow. And the first heading we want to look at in verses 8 to 11 is simply this regarding the people that Jude and Peter describe. The first heading is just simply this. They rejected divine authority. They rejected divine authority. And that's verses eight to 11. So let's look at verse number eight. It says yet in the same way, these men. So in the very same way, referring back to verses five through seven, in the very same way indicates that these people that Jude is describing followed the same path that Israel did, that the fallen angels did, and that Sodom and Gomorrah did. These, in the same way, followed those paths. And so, as we think about that, we continue reading here. It says, also by dreaming, defile the flesh and reject authority. Defile the flesh and reject authority. These godless ones, and that's what Jude indicated they were, is ungodly. Now, I shared with you last time that ungodly does not mean that they did not know God. Ungodly meant, the term there means that they knew God, but they did not honor him as God. They had no fear in their heart of him as God. They acted ungodly or God less. They did what they did despite the fact that they knew of God. Now, this word here is interesting. In verse eight, Jude tells us that the way in which they followed the same path as Israel, Sodom and Gomorrah and the fallen angels is also by dreaming. Also by dreaming. Now, how many of us have dreamt? So what does this mean? You know, if we follow, we don't want to follow the same path, but I'm sure if you're like me, you dream a lot. So what does he meaning when he says dreaming, dreaming, they defile the flesh? Well, again, I have stressed and I will always stress. Scripture must, interpret Scripture. We must find the meaning of this from the Bible. And in order to do that, it would be helpful to find out maybe if dreaming was used in the Bible in any other place to describe people that were living and doing the same types of things Jude describes. Now, some of us might would go immediately to Joseph. Some of us might go, you know, to Daniel or whatever. But if you remember, through the prophet Jeremiah, when he was preaching, In Jeremiah 23, the Bible says, I heard what the prophets who prophesy a lie in my name have said. I had a dream, I had a dream. How long will this continue in the minds of the prophets prophesying lies? Prophets of the deceit of their own minds. Through their dreams, they tell one another, they plan to cause my people to forget my name as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. So what is Jude doing? Jude's just using the Bible. He's going back to what this church should know because they've been taught it. Jews have been taught it specifically since they've been children. They know the word. They know Jeremiah and the prophet and the prophetic utterances that he put forth and the Septuagint that they were reading, which was the Old Testament. They knew these scriptures. They've heard them read. And what he is commenting on is are helping them understand. is that these false leaders that have crept in to the church that Jude is writing to, they're not just practicing godless living. They're not just practicing immorality, but they're actually teaching it and encouraging it, not basing it on the scripture, but basing it on what they had a dream about the night before. Sounds like the Book of Mormon to me. I'll leave that alone and we'll move on. But anytime someone wants to reveal to you a teaching that they got in a dream or some type of experience, well, there's a lot of sarcastic, you know, let me think how to say this more better. If someone comes to you and says they heard from God, but it differs from what's been written, they hadn't heard from God. They hadn't heard from God. There are no new revelations. There are none. The canon has been closed. It's done. God has spoken. If you want to hear God out loud, read the Bible out loud. If you want to hear the still small voice, read it quietly to yourself. For God has spoken. So what these teachers were doing was telling these congregants. And encouraging them to live any moral life. And they were encouraging them to do so based on what they learned in their dreams. Well, Jude's point here is simple. by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority. So their dreaming was influencing their defilement of the flesh and rejection of authority. By their dreaming, what was the result of that teaching that they received, like it did in Jeremiah's day, was aiding or encouraging the defilement of flesh and the rejection of authority. Now here, the Bible tells us, and rejected authority. Well, what do we know? What kind of authority? We could, as some old, old scholars have said, that this could be likely these false Christians rejecting civil authority. But I find that a little far stretch being what we read in verse four. So jump back up to verse four. The ending of verse four, it says, ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, who? Jesus Christ. So what authority have they denied? Jesus. They have denied Christ. They've turned the grace of God into a license to sin. That's what they've done. And they're teaching this wholeheartedly. and they're believing what they're teaching and it's having an effect on many that Jude has written to because they're coming into the church saying, man, God came to me in a dream last night and he told me that you should live this way and you should do this and you ought to do this and that. And they were like, wow, let me go on and do that. Be careful before we snicker at it. because I'm gonna remind you of how many of your little yellow books were sold at Lifeway that were entitled Heaven is for Real. And then they eventually had to pull it because the whole thing was made up. But local churches just flopped to a little six-year-old boy's dream of heaven. If you wanna know about heaven, Read the book, read the book, but you let someone come along and tell you that they have thunk up, if that's even a word, some new hip hop, revelatory, pragmatic invention for ministry and the world goes bonkers over it. I just assumed a state of preaching the word. Preaching the word. They rejected authority, and the authority they rejected was Christ. Before we snicker, may God be extremely gracious to us that we too watch our own walks, that we're not setting aside in our own lives in church the authority of Christ. Well, Jude says here they rejected authority, they rejected authority. And in doing so, it says also and revile angelic majesties. And here's where we're creeping into some of the difficulty. And if I didn't do expository preaching, it would be easy just to skip this part. But we want to know that every word of it is by God and it deserves our attention. So when we get here, and he says, and revile angelic majesties. Now what in the world is this talking about? Reviling angelic majesties. Well, when you think of that word revile, it means to slander. It means to slander. It also, it does not mean to deny the existence of, but rather to shame or to speak insultingly about something. So when you revile something, you're insulting that something or you're slandering that something. This demonstrates that what these people were so far gone is that they took their slanderous living and their reviling to the next level, so to speak. And even though they denied Christ as being the authoritative one, they in themselves began to act authoritatively toward the unseen realm. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but I assure you your school kids are. New Age cults, crystals, Ouija boards. We could go on and on and on. When people begin to think that they have authority in the realm of the unknown. Brothers and sisters, that stuff's real. It's real. It exists today. And many haphazardly trot into that realm thinking that they can sustain their own self within it. And they're just a mere puppet waiting to be played by the demonic forces of evil. These things are real. And what Jude says here is comparing a illustration he pulled here in verse nine regarding Michael the archangel. He said, even Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil about the body of Moses, he did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. In other words, Jude is just pulling an illustration here regarding Michael the archangel, who we would say is a high up angel, and even he himself did not revile or slander even Satan, but left that to the work of the Lord. And Jude is saying these false teachers have went beyond that which Michael the archangel would even have demonstrated. So in other words, you're flirting with some dark, deep, dark stuff. Now, I remember hearing throughout my bringing up in trial, I remember people being fascinated with verse nine. Michael fussed with Satan about Moses' body. You know, I remember hearing that growing up and come to find out, guess what? That's not in your Bible. Nowhere. So, what do we do? Well, here's what you gotta deal with. you will find out that Jude, second Peter, and even Paul in Acts 17 in the Areopagus, each one of these men would pull from secular literature that was highly favored by the audiences that they were preaching to. So what we have a record of here is from first Enoch that Jude is using. First Enoch. Now, if you wanna look up anything on First Enoch, remember, it is pseudiographical, which means nothing. I understand that. It's extra biblical literature. Let me say it that way. If you want to look up anything, I would highly encourage you to consult Dr. Michael Heiser. His work on the unseen realm is really fascinating. And he does a lot of work here with First Enoch. I've read a lot of his stuff, and he does a really helpful job talking to you about that. You could go on YouTube and look up Wes Huff. He is a new rising star in the apologetic world. He was recently on Joe Rogan's podcast, the most popular one in all the world. He got a chance, I think, to share the gospel on there. but he is an incredible guy who has some solid information regarding this type of literature, which we would call apocryphal literature. This would be considered part of the apocrypha. Now, as we as Protestants, we don't have this literature in our canon. The Catholic Church would include these books in their canon, and again, There's a lot could be said about all that. But what you need to know this evening is that Jude, when you're reading through here, he is pulling from first Enoch, which would have been very familiar to the minds and ears of his listeners. So that's what you need to know. And he pulls this illustration regarding Michael, the archangel, arguing about the body of Moses. Now you can go back to Deuteronomy, which we'll eventually get to if that's If that's chapter 32 or 34, it'd be about six years from now. So just know that we'll get there one day, but it's toward the end. And anyway, it's in there, but it don't talk about Michael arguing. That comes from first Enoch. And what he goes on to say here in verse 10 is, but these men revile the things which they do not understand. In other words, they're messing around with stuff they don't know nothing about, and yet they're acting authoritatively as though they do. That's what Judah's saying. Brothers and sisters, if you've read Deuteronomy, if you've read Leviticus, if you've read Numbers, then you know that this was normal life for Israel. They were constantly being pulled back and forth, dealing with soothsayers and witchcraft and false gods and all this stuff. This stuff is real. Paul says explicitly in Ephesians chapter six, before you get to the armor of God, that we wrestled not against what? Flesh and blood. But against what? Principalities. I mean, it is there. And I'm not gonna tell you a lot of my thoughts, because I know you already are praying extremely hard for your preacher, and I don't wanna put more fuel on the fire for you needing to pray there. But, you know, there's a lot of things I have thoughts on all that. But, you know, interestingly, when it comes to aliens and things like that, Do I think there's an alien life form out there? No, I don't. But what I do find interesting is that in the Bible, in these places, I'll give you two just off the top of my head. For example, when Jesus was baptized in Matthew chapter four, the Bible says that something happened there. Something happened. What it was, I don't know, but there was a dove, the Spirit was like a dove, they heard the voice of the Father, and there was a multitude, a multitude, I'll give you another one. Elijah, Elisha, Elisha, I get them juz and shuz mixed up, but one of them said, Lord, remove your blinders off his eyes so that he may see. And surrounding the mountain was what? Chariots of fire, angelic host. I believe that there is a realm of which you and I cannot see. Thank God. But there's a realm to which you and I cannot see. And in some of those moments in the accounts of the scripture, I think the people that were there kind of got a glimpse of how God would open up the unseen, so to speak. You remember Stephen, when he was dying, he lifted up his eyes and what'd he see? He saw Christ. How'd he do that? He got something beyond 2020, amen? You know, but think about it. This stuff is all over the book. So don't, you know, let us not, let us be careful not to snicker at what these men had fallen into because if we're not careful, children today are falling into this stuff left and right. And I don't even want to say just children, it's adults too. People are longing for something just to, I don't know, it's dark. So just be aware of that. We gotta move on. But why? Let's keep reading here, I'm sorry. Verse number 10, but these men revile these things which they do not understand, and the things which they do know, they know by instinct like unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed. You know, when it talks about these slandering, slandering or reviling these angelic majesties back in verse number eight, this is a tricky one. Because scholars are divided. If you was to pick up 20 commentaries, you'd have 10 that went on one argument and 10 that went on the other. 10 say this is reviling the evil angels, and then 10 are gonna say it's reviling the good angels, and I typically am leaning on the good side because it says reviling angelic majesties. But the question is, why would they slander angelic majesties? That's the question. Why would they even do that? We're in the old covenant here. We're easing up on 70 AD. And what were angels known for regarding the old covenant? Well, here's your answer. In Galatians 3.19, for those in Brother Shane's Sunday school class, says that having been ordained through angels, talking about the law of God, the law of God was mediated to Moses through angels. Stephen confirmed that in Acts 7 verse 53. You who receive the law as ordained by angels, This is what the angels were. They were guardians of the people and they were givers of God's perfect law under the old covenant. Under the old covenant operation system, angelic beings were guardians of the people and givers of the law. Hebrews 1.14 confirms that. All ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation. So why do you think men that had crept into the Christian church were reviling or slandering the good angelic host of God? Because they represented what? Authority. And these groups of people did not want anything to do with authority. They claimed to have some knowledge about heavenly matters and yet, The way in which they lived, according to verse 10, did not even surpass the unreasoning animals that they represented. I would say by Jude, that was a pretty good jab right there. Well, and so what's the result of following your instincts? Destruction. If I am a man who is unsaved, and I have a mind that is dark and a heart that is dead, if I follow my gut, so to speak, where's that gonna lead me? Destruction. You remember what Ezekiel said, or Jeremiah, I'm sorry, Jeremiah, the heart is what? It's so trustworthy. Is that what it said? No. It's deceitful. It's sick. Desperately wicked, who can know it? And if you follow instinctively what rises up within you, be careful, because you will be like the blind leading the blind. Well, what does Peter describe them as doing? Well, let's continue, verse 11. They have gone the way of Cain. Well, for time's sake, I'm gonna try to shorten these down, but what did Cain do? Killed his brother. So they've gone the way of Cain, what weight is that? They hate their brothers and sisters. They hate them. He goes on to say here, for pay, they rushed headlong into the error of Balaam. In other words, these false teachers rushed headlong into the error of Balaam by teaching and misleading God's people for what? Money. Now there's a lot to be said about old Balaam. That's a good story. It's a fun one. That's a lot to unpack. But what you remember in Revelation 2, verse 14, it said that God through the leader of the church there spoke of them being led astray, the doctrine of Balaam. And so when you go back to study that story, what Balaam did, As he told them that, you know, the fastest way to destroy the nation of Israel would be to corrupt the nation by having the people defile themselves with the heathen nations around them. He said, you're God's chosen people. Certainly a little friendship with your neighbors ain't going to hurt you. That's basically what was going on. And what happened? They turned the grace of God into a license to sin. That's what happened. And who did God judge? Israel and Balaam. And then he says here, and then, and perished in like the rebellion of Korah. Anybody remember that fascinating story? Well, what did the sons of Korah do? Rebelled against Moses and God opened the earth and swallowed I think 25,000 of them in one day. So again, all this pointing to love for self, misleading the sheep of God, and then ultimately it leads to your destruction, being swallowed up in a grave. That's the picture that's being painted here. And so secondly, the second heading, not only were they evil here, and we'll see that, but secondly, they were deliberately hypocritical. Verses 12 to 13. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feast when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves, their clouds without water, carried alone by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted, wild waves casting their own shame like foam, wandering stars from whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. So think about what Jude is saying here regarding these men. Number one, they're hidden reefs at your love feast. Now, what is a love feast? Well, according to smart folks, these love feasts, that word there in Greek is agape. So they really think that it would probably be times that the church got together for the Lord's supper, But it could also be times that they got together just to practice fellowship among the brethren. And what these false people were, these false leaders were doing was even showing up here without any fear whatsoever of God. And they were being like hidden reefs, like a hidden reef. And that word reef also points to like rock, hidden rock. So as as they gathered there, basically what Jude is saying is that these false teachers were like hidden rocks that would rip out the bottom of a boat. And as they lie in wait, to bring destruction on those people. This is who they were. He goes on to say here in verse 12 that they were caring for themselves. In other words, they were shepherds who cared for themselves and not the sheep. They abandoned their responsibility. Do you think Jude is alluding to something that Ezekiel pointed out? I think our Lord Jesus alluded to something too, that shepherds who left when the wolf came was only a what? Hired hand. So it's all connected. Then he says here that they were also empty clouds. Are clouds without water? Clouds without rain. In other words, it's a metaphor you could say, Jude is saying that they do not deliver what they promise. And actually it's a proverb, Proverbs 25 verse 14. Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give. And that's what was happening. It's unstable, verse 12, again, carried along by winds. In other words, it's cloud without water that's carried along by wind. It's just carried, it's blowed wherever it wants to go, wherever the wind blows it. It don't have a steady grasp. And then again, he mentions here, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead and uprooted. Now, basically, autumn trees would be the same metaphor as empty clouds. And then he says, why are they doubly dead, basically twice dead? Two thoughts, Ephesians 2.1 says that we're what? Dead in our sin. But then in Revelation, it says the second death. And either way you would interpret that, I think would be okay, because we're born dead in our transgression and sin, and then secondly, doubly dead, is that if we died without Christ, we would experience the second death. Jesus mentioned that in Luke 13, being dug up and cast away. And then verse 13, it says, in wild waves of the sea, casting their own shame like foam. Well, that goes back to Isaiah 57, meaning their shameful deeds just look like foam on wild crashing waves. And then wandering stars, from whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. And guess where this comes from? First Enoch. Again, he pulls from Enoch. Actually, it's 1 Enoch chapter 18, verses 13 to 15, but the point, from what I gather, is that the ancient people would look up into the stars and consider them to be stable. But as you know, if you look up, you try to, you know, you'll find the Big Dipper all the time, but if you look up, you know, Jupiter may be over here one night, and then it may be, so the emphasis that Jude is making is there, these false teachers, there's no stability. They're always constantly moving. and darkness is reserved for them. Verse 16, they're grumblers, they find fault, follow after their lust, speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. This is Jude and Peter's way of saying they're full of hot air. I think we would all probably know that illustration. Now remember, I don't want you to miss this, because I'm gonna try to close here Why is this important? Well, if you remember Jesus's words in the Olivet discourse, we just come out of second Peter and all they were saying is where's his return? He hadn't come back yet. In other words, a lot of them, because Jesus hadn't come in judgment yet, as he said he would, they were beginning to live like they want to thinking he had lied the whole time. Remember His words. So if you want to read the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24, Mark 13, or Luke 21, I'm going to quote this from Mark 13, verse 20. Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect whom God chose, He shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, behold, here is the Christ, or behold, He is there, do not believe them. for false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders in order to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Every church that Paul and Peter and Jude and all wrote to, they needed to have that reminder at hand. Because those days were certainly filled with misleadings and betrayals. In verse 14 and 15, the third heading and final, they simply will receive their due penalty. The Bible says here, it was also about these men that Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, behold, the Lord comes with many of his thousands of his holy ones. That's a quote from 1 Enoch as well. To execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly deeds which they've done in ungodly ways and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Now, to close, I'm gonna flip over here to 1 Thessalonians 2, and you can just listen to this, picking up in verse 13. It says, for this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive the word of God that you heard from us, You accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. Finally, you, brethren, be imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen. even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. And with the result that they will always fill up the measure of their sins, but the wrath has come upon them to the utmost." And you can go over to 2 Thessalonians 1, and Paul speaks here of the time that Jesus would come in judgment and level Jerusalem. And that's 2 Thessalonians chapter one, verses three through 12. You remember the prediction. They come out and said, Lord, don't you see all these beautiful buildings? And he said to them, not a stone will be left on any of them. Brothers and sisters, that judgment came And every one of them who stood reject the Lord Jesus received their penalty. What do we learn from this tonight regarding the Christians Jude wrote to? There's a lot of persecution. I've took you through some of that before, but there was famine, there was women and children who were killed, led away, beaten, just terrible things. Families lost loved ones. They lost their belongings. They lost their home. They had to flee. They had to retreat. They had to run away to spare their life. There's times in the people of God's lives where this question will be asked, Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? That question is not far away from the mouths of many believers. I don't know if you've read, but you know, over around the Middle East, we've had several Christians reportedly beheaded in churches over there. Who knows what's going on in some of the remotest parts of the world right now. You know, we get the luxury of being in this building, studying the Bible together, and they come together and don't know if they're going to make it home. We struggle to decide whether or not we're going to come to church if it's raining or if, you know, we need to go to Walmart. But maybe you're here this evening and it's just been a low time. And down in the deep part of your heart, you subconsciously are asking, Lord, how long? You don't want nobody to know you're asking that. That's okay, I don't have to know you're asking that. Nobody else has to know. But I want you to know that you have one who wants you to confess that to him. We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize. but one who can. Maybe it is a dark time in your personal life. You know, Charles Spurgeon, I read one time and I'll never forget it, he said, there's plenty of times in the Christian's life where we cannot trace his hand, but we can always trust his heart. And brothers and sisters, you may be one tonight. You're not dealing with some crazy preacher trying to tell you what he dreamed about and encourage you to live that way. But maybe it was a phone call this week, or maybe it was a doctor's appointment, or maybe it was a friend or a loved one, or just a conversation at the gas tank. Something maybe rattled you. And you know, you wonder, Lord, how long? How long? And the answer is this, Jesus Christ will reign until every enemy is made a footstool for his feet. We're fighting battles that he's already won. No matter what comes our way, we know who overcomes. Sometimes we don't know what he's doing, but we know what he's done. We're fighting battles that he's already won. Let's pray.